Hello, this is attorney Lee Young-kyung of Cheongchul Law Firm.

The case-handling procedure of the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) begins when the Commission becomes aware of a suspected violation by a business or receives a complaint, and proceeds through the examiner’s investigation, preparation of the examination report, and deliberation and resolution by the plenary council or a subcommittee. Throughout this process, a complainant who reports a violation occupies an important position by providing the initial lead, yet it has long been pointed out that, compared with the respondent who is the formal party, the complainant has relatively limited opportunities to participate in the proceedings.

Against this backdrop, on June 16, 2026, the KFTC prepared a draft amendment to the “Rules on the Operation of Meetings and Case Procedures of the Korea Fair Trade Commission” (the “Case Procedure Rules”) and announced that it would give administrative notice for 20 days, from June 17 to July 7, 2026. This draft amendment focuses on more robustly protecting the rights and interests of complainants—for example, by expanding their opportunities to participate in deliberations—and also includes provisions to remedy certain deficiencies identified in practice. Today, we examine the key contents and practical implications of the draft amendment to the Case Procedure Rules under administrative notice.

[Key Contents of the Draft Case Procedure Rules]

Centered on strengthening complainants’ procedural rights, the draft amendment contains various changes across the case procedure as a whole. The principal contents are as follows.

1. Notice to the complainant simultaneously with referral of the examination report

The current Case Procedure Rules provide that the complainant is notified in advance of the holding of a deliberation and is given an opportunity to state opinions during the deliberation. The draft amendment requires that, at the same time the examiner refers the examination report to the plenary council or a subcommittee, the examiner notify the complainant of that fact, so that notice to the complainant is given from the stage of referral of the examination report. This will allow the complainant to secure more time to respond fully to the deliberation. Previously, the matters notified to the complainant were the commencement of case examination, the status of the investigation, the deliberation date, and the case outcome; with this amendment, the fact of referral of the examination report is also included among the matters to be notified.

2. New basis for the complainant’s participation in the preliminary opinion-hearing procedure

The preliminary opinion-hearing procedure is a process in which, ahead of the formal deliberation, the examiner and the respondent state their opinions before the commissioners and organize the issues. Under the current rules, participation in this procedure was limited to the examiner and the respondent, but the draft amendment establishes a basis for the complainant as well to participate in this procedure and present opinions. Specifically, it allows a complainant and others to request that the examiner conduct the opinion-hearing procedure, and in such a case the “examiner” referred to in the relevant provisions is deemed to include the complainant and others—thereby opening a channel through which the complainant can convey their opinions directly to the commissioners from the issue-organizing stage.

3. New field on the unfair labeling/advertising complaint form for reporting to other agencies

The draft amendment adds an item to the complaint form for violations of the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising (Form No. 6 of the Annex) requiring the complainant to state whether the same matter has been reported to another agency, along with the name of that agency, the date of the report, and its processing status. Unfair labeling and advertising matters not infrequently overlap with the jurisdiction of several agencies, so by confirming in advance at the complaint stage whether duplicate complaints have been filed, the amendment aims to facilitate smooth inter-agency cooperation.

4. Updating provisions to reflect organizational restructuring and amendments to superior statutes

In addition, the draft amendment updates the relevant provisions to reflect the KFTC’s organizational restructuring and amendments to superior statutes. It rearranges the individual statutory provisions that serve as the basis for preliminary examination, clarifies the definition of an examiner (including, within the scope of a director-general, general-service public officials belonging to the Senior Civil Service Corps at an equivalent level), and adjusts the scope of an examiner’s final decision-making authority over cases involving administrative fines in line with the relevant statutory amendments. It also updates the responsible department names and consultation contacts on each complaint form to match the current organizational structure. Furthermore, in the violation pre-check list of the complaint form for unfair support conduct (Form No. 4 of the Annex), it raises the threshold of support amounts that are unlikely to be deemed a violation from the previous 50 million won or less to 100 million won or less.

[Future Procedure and How to Submit Opinions]

This draft amendment to the Case Procedure Rules has not yet been finalized; it is a “draft” at the administrative-notice stage. The KFTC plans to thoroughly review the opinions of interested parties submitted during the administrative-notice period (June 17 to July 7, 2026) and then finalize and implement the amendment after going through the relevant procedures, including a resolution of the plenary council. Any individual or organization with opinions on the draft amendment may submit them by July 7, 2026.

[Practical Implications]

This draft amendment is significant in that it substantively strengthens the position of complainants, who had been somewhat marginalized in procedural terms. From the standpoint of a complainant, or of a business or its officers and employees considering filing a complaint, being notified of the progress from the report-referral stage and being able to participate even in the preliminary opinion-hearing procedure means securing more opportunities to actively present their arguments and supporting materials during the deliberation. Accordingly, systematically organizing the issues and diligently preparing relevant evidence from the time of the complaint has become even more important than before.

On the other hand, from the respondent’s standpoint, as complainants can now participate in the preliminary opinion-hearing procedure and present opinions, there is a greater need to review the response logic to the complainant’s arguments from the early stages of deliberation. Since the complainant’s opinions may now be added to the organization of issues between the respondent and the examiner, more thorough defense preparation is required on both the factual and legal fronts.

Moreover, in unfair labeling and advertising matters, since whether duplicate complaints have been filed with other agencies is stated on the complaint form, inter-agency information sharing and cooperation may be strengthened; therefore, in matters where complaints are filed simultaneously with multiple agencies, it is necessary to manage the progress of each procedure in an integrated manner. That said, as noted above, this draft amendment will be finalized and implemented after administrative notice, so it is necessary to confirm the content of the regulation as ultimately enacted and respond accordingly.